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New Message from Rinpoche

I have recently noticed people trying to sell items that they claim to be personal belongings of the great Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo and Jamyang Khyentse Chokyi Lodro.

While some claims may possibly be true, it is of utmost importance – regardless of such claims – not to encourage this trade, as some are doing by paying exorbitant prices for these objects.

I personally know that some of my own students, with a very good heart, want to buy these objects in order to protect them. While I very much appreciate their good motivation, we really need to discourage and stop this trade, which is very harmful.

Already, many monasteries throughout the Himalayan region are suffering from such commerce. And in the longer run, no matter how sacred an object may be, it is never good to think of or treat it as a commodity or investment, which creates great misunderstanding. If you buy it, even with good intention, you foster a very bad habit that will be passed on to many others who are extremely materialist.

If you really have extra money to spend, then it will create far more benefit to translate a single page of the Kangyur through 84000, or to help Khyentse Foundation support a nun to do retreat for even a week or a Cambodian monk to study the dharma. That is also my wish.